


Flight Conversation

by friendofspiderman



Series: Fictober 2020 [15]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Awesome Michelle Jones, Canon Compliant, F/M, Ficlet, Fictober, POV Michelle Jones, Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie), Teen Romance, Young Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27068239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/friendofspiderman/pseuds/friendofspiderman
Summary: Fictober Prompt #15 - "not interested, thank you"---MJ and Peter bond on the plane ride back from London.
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Series: Fictober 2020 [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953223
Comments: 10
Kudos: 53





	Flight Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> This fic may or may not be using MJ as an excuse to rant about repatriation, so...whoops.

“Hey MJ, you wanna watch a movie?” Peter asks. “I have a dual headphone adapter.”

MJ turns to smile at him, still getting butterflies because she’s _sitting so close_ to Peter Parker, her longtime crush, and she will be for the next eight hours. 

“Yeah, what do you wanna watch?”

Peter suddenly flushes and reaches for the back of his neck.

“Shit, I just remembered that all my stuff blew up. I don’t know why I suggested that…. I guess we could use these terrible airplane headphones?” He unwraps his and fumbles with the cheap plastic, somehow already getting his fingers tangled in the cords. MJ wonders if his hands ever stick to stuff without his control and adds it to her mental list of questions to ask later.

“You know what?” She says, “If I’m being honest, I’m not feeling super up to a movie right now.” Her heart beats faster as she speaks, the words she’s about to say already feeling foreign to her closed-off temperament. “Maybe we could just…talk?”

Peter grins widely. “Yeah. Yeah, I would really love that.”

“Okay, good.” She shifts in her seat and looks down, scanning her brain for a decent topic for small light conversation.

“So,” she says, “We missed the Eifel Tower, which would have been cool. That’s what I was most looking forward to anyway.” She brushes her hair out of her eyes and looks at him. “What about you? What were you hoping to see?”

“Well, I was most excited about the Eifel Tower, too, but that was because—” his eyes flashed to her black dahlia necklace—“well, you know why.” He laughs softly. “I was also pretty stoked about the Louvre, though. Just one of those landmark museums everyone should see, you know?”

MJ’s brow furrows slightly. “I guess.”

Peter backtracks. “I mean, it’s no British Museum, I’m sure, but like, the Mona Lisa’s there and everything.” He turns to her. “But you like history and art, right? I would have _loved_ to visit the British Museum with you before we left—maybe someday, huh?”

“Not interested, thank you.”

Peter stiffens a bit, and she instantly regrets her hurried and somewhat cold reply.

“Oh—okay.” He says. “Sure.”

She keeps silent, knowing what she _wants_ to say but worrying her blunt honesty might ruin the moment. She’s sitting next to the most sincere, sunshine-y boy she knows, and although her mind is a bit preoccupied with the mission of making him her boyfriend, her natural inclination to tell her truth is ever present.

“MJ?” He interrupts her thoughts. “I take it you’re not much of a museum person then?”

He’s opened the door, and she decides to jump right through.

She exhales.

“I hate the British Museum.”

His eyes widen a bit, but he quickly dials back his surprise. “Oh? Why’s that?”

“It’s full of artifacts stolen by imperialists and colonizers and its Board of Trustees is a bunch of jerks. They refuse to repatriate the things Britain stole, even now. It’s gross.”

Peter is looking at her intently, and she can tell he’s taking her rushed words seriously rather than blowing them off like most of the students at Midtown do.

“Oh.” He says. “I never knew. They really won’t give _any_ of the stolen things back?”

“Pretty much.” MJ reaches for her backpack. “And there’s some pretty high profile stuff happening, too.” She pulls out her sketchbook. “You ever hear of the Elgin Marbles?”

He shakes his head.

She flips to a sketch she’d recently completed of the Greek Acropolis. “They used to live here, but a British dude took all of these gorgeous sculptures from the site in the 1800s just to have them in his house. And the museum has them now, but it refuses to return them even though Greece has been asking for years.”

“Really?” Peter looks dumbfounded. “Why?”

MJ shrugs. “A bunch of paternalistic bullshit. They’re saying they take better care of them than Greece can, but there’s a new state-of-the-art Acropolis Museum there just waiting for the return.” She closes the sketchbook and leans back. “So many museums are incredibly problematic, but the British Museum has to be the worst.”

Peter’s still looking intensely thoughtful, and she feels like she’s killed the light-hearted mood.

“Sorry.” She stuffs the book back into her bag. “I know that’s not the most…exciting topic of conversation.” 

“No, it’s okay,” he says earnestly. “I didn’t know any of that, and it’s important.” He smiles at her. “I think it’s so cool that you know all this stuff. I learn a lot from you.”

She melts as his brown eyes gaze into hers. “Thanks.”

They look away, shifting in their seats again. 

Peter breaks the silence.

“So, what else do you wanna talk about? Know any cool European history facts?”

She recalls Peter’s previous admission that the sweaty guy, “Happy,” had told him to try and rest as much as possible to heal up his injuries.

“Honestly?” She rubs her eyes. “This entire trip has me beat. I kinda want to sleep. Is that terrible?”

His soft smile answers. “No.” He breaks into a yawn. “No, that’s perfect.”

They close their eyes and lay back their heads. MJ hasn’t felt this relaxed the entire trip, and she thinks Peter’s openness to her ramblings has everything to do with it. She feels even less guarded than she’d been with him in London. Even though his superhero identity had technically endangered her and their entire class on this trip, she’s never felt so _safe_.

Peter makes her feel safe.

MJ smiles at the realization. She’s still giddy that they’re sitting so close, and if she wakes up a few hours later to Peter’s head on her shoulder? Well, that’s just fine with her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading <3


End file.
